


Building Bridges

by Dracavia



Series: The Green Blanket [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Acceptance, Guardians of the Galaxy cameo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 05:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4088476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracavia/pseuds/Dracavia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanos' reappearance brought a lot of secrets to light, now everyone needs to deal with the results. Tony's hoping those results won't include Loki running off again, not that he really wants to examine why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Building Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Corcalamus for being my irreplaceable sounding board, and to my sister, Saya, for doing the copy-edit. Any remaining errors are all mine, because I can't help fiddling with things even after I get them back from beta.  
> I'm not sure when the next story in this series will be posted, but I currently have ideas for two more stories after this. So make sure to subscribe to the series if you want to be notified when they're up.  
> The Steve & Bucky part of this story can be read as platonic or pre-slash, whichever you prefer.

_We build too many walls and not enough bridges. - Sir Isaac Newton_

~*~*~*~*~*~

Fairy-godfather had been the wrong analogy, Tony mused as he looked upon Loki - blood-spattered and singed, spear held aloft - in the smoking wreckage of what had been Thanos' base. Since the moment Loki had found out Thanos was the one that had woken Maliketh's ship for the convergence, he'd been driven. And now the only thought that came to mind was that of an avenging fallen angel.

Tony's musing was interrupted as Quill's voice came over the comm line.

"Uh, hey guys, I know I'm not the tech genius Rocket and Stark are, but from what I'm looking at here I'm 99% certain the base's reactor is past the point of no return on heading for catastrophic meltdown. So we should probably all book it for the meeting point. I'll call the Milano down."

"How long do you figure we have, Quill?" Steve the ever practical, Tony thought as he started orienting himself to head to the rendezvous point.

"Five minutes, maybe ten?"

"What?!" Clint's squawk sounded more like a chicken than a hawk, but Tony couldn't disagree with the sentiment.

"Well we'd all better get a move on then," Steve said and you could hear in his voice he already was. "And whoever gets to the ship first, see if you can get any more precise readings than that."

Tony was about to take off when he realised Loki wasn't heading for the ship but instead looking through the bodies around him for something.

"Loki?" he tried on the comm, but he didn't get a response, even when he tried switching to his individual signal, and then he remembered the energy blast that had hit Loki midway through the battle. It must have fried Loki's earpiece.

Cursing to himself, Tony took off for Loki, in the opposite direction from the ship.

"Loki!" Tony shouted to get the other's attention as he landed. "We need to go."

Loki didn't even look at him. "I must ensure they're all dead."

"Don't worry about that, the base's reactor is going to take care of it for you. It'll take care of us as well if we don't get the hell out of here now. Quill's inside estimate is about 3 minutes from now."

Loki's eyes widened. "Then why are you wasting time talking?"

He stepped towards Tony and shadows seemed to come up to swallow him as he reached out and grabbed the arm of the armour. With a sickening lurch the view past his displays went dark and then they were standing at the base of the ramp to the ship.

"Finally! We were just about to radio you to make your own way skyward," Clint said as they walked up the ramp and it closed behind them.

Loki quirked an unimpressed brow at that. "How could you be certain I could follow? You've never seen me fly without a vehicle."

"Can't you? That'd have been a shame."

Clint gave Tony a scathing look that clearly blamed him for the fact that he was having to deal with Loki - which, fair enough, it was his fault - then turned his back on them to head further into the ship.

"They knew I was near you. Thor wouldn't have let them break atmosphere until we were on board."

Without taking his gaze from the door through which Clint had disappeared from the bay, Loki replied in an almost resigned voice, "Your suit would have allowed you into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, where even my resilient constitution wouldn't survive without protection, and the others know it. Thor is but one man, regardless of his strength, if the others had over-ruled him..."

The implication didn't need to be spoken, they both knew Loki was right. Given their backgrounds the Guardians were more likely to be sympathetic of Loki's past, especially since it was his information that had gotten them here so they could strike the final blow to Thanos with the very gems he coveted. Problem was they hardly knew Loki, or any of the rest of them, so how hard would they have fought for him? It was too hard to say.

Before he'd even registered he'd thought them, the words, "Well I wouldn't have broken atmosphere without you," were out of Tony's mouth.

Loki looked at him with the kind of surprise usually reserved for sudden revelations, and Tony thought it reflected pretty well how he was feeling himself.

"You are a rare creature, Tony Stark, and your comrades are fools not to understand how deep your sense of loyalty goes."

He left the bay then, before Tony could reply, leaving him to ponder Loki's words as he took off his suit. This trip was proving to be full of surprises, and not all of them were related to being in space.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Frigga had warned both her sons not to be surprised if they heard unflattering things about themselves when listening in on other's conversations. Thor had taken it as a warning not to eavesdrop, but Loki took it to mean the only way you'd hear what people really thought of you was when they didn't know you were listening - and it was a policy he felt had served him well - even if it was likely what she'd intended was somewhere between what the brothers had each taken away from the lesson.

Which was why when he heard his name being spoken in the corridor ahead, instead of walking away Loki pulled the shadows in to cloak himself and quietly walked closer.

"You know, Clint I might have expected this of. He's got an understandable personal grudge, but you? What the hell ever happened to 'leave no man behind'?"

"That's a policy for men in your unit."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise not being an official Avenger rendered you expendable. I'll be sure to let Rhodey know that. Oh and our Guardian pals here."

"Tony-" Steve couldn't have sounded more long-suffering if he'd tried, but Tony didn't let him continue.

"No, don't you _dare_ 'Tony' me. We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him. He's the one that found the last gem before Thanos, and did he keep it for himself? No, he brought it to us, and put us in contact with the Guardians. The only people in the fucking universe besides Thanos himself known to be capable of wielding the gems without dying, and reckless enough to risk it with all six at once. We're damn lucky they're also the type to use that power to destroy the gems themselves when the goal was met instead of keeping them and letting the power go to their heads. And where was it they officially all met again? Oh that's right, _prison_."

"It's not the same thing, you can't seriously be trying to compare Loki to them."

"Of course I can. Quill is a thief, a scavenger and a self-professed outlaw."

"Kidnapped and raised by worse."

"Then there's Drax, need I remind you of his nickname?"

"He was avenging his family."

"And he went mercenary to do it. Then there's a pair of lawless bounty hunters."

"Experimented on against their will. Of course they don't fit in."

"And we can't forget one of Thanos' own favourite assassins-"

"Reluctant!"

"-who helped conquer and destroy dozens of worlds, overseeing mass genocide on a global scale more than once. So how again is Loki somehow worse than them?"

"Because they regret it."

"Really? Gamora strikes me as the only one that actually regrets her past."

"And she's the one Loki's most similar to," Steve countered, sounding as though he thought he'd made a key point.

"From your point of view."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe you don't see as much as you think you do. Have a read about internalised racism the next time you hit the internet after we get home," Tony suggested rather forcefully and turned away, clearly done with the conversation.

As Tony left, Steve looked after him with an uncertain expression on his face. Loki himself wasn't sure what to make of the exchange as he went to find a quiet corner in which to think.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"It explains a lot about him, but it doesn't excuse what he's done."

Tony looked up from the suit prototype he was working on to look levelly at Steve.

"I never said it did, but between it and the daddy issues that trump my own, it makes the trip off the deep end make sense."

Steve gave him a curious look.

"Let's just say my few decades of giving Howard's memory the finger look completely sane and balanced compared to the centuries of trying to convince Odin he's a worthy son after being caught breaking a key cultural taboo."

"...You know more about him than most of us."

"In this, more than anyone." Tony gave him a moment to let that sink in before continuing. "I also know more about making mistakes because you've fooled yourself about what will make things right than most. I've seen enough to give him another chance, to reset the clock and go from here."

"You've talked to him about a lot more than just Thanos."

"I have. Are you going to tell me I'm compromised because of it?"

"Are you?"

"...Probably. Is that going to be a problem?"

"I'd be more concerned if you'd denied you were at all. The dangerous point is when you can't see the possible problems anymore."

Tony quirked a brow at him. "Like your missing person search?"

Steve smiled wryly. "Exactly, that's why Sam is helping me."

"He's helping you because he's your friend and you look like a kicked puppy every time a lead doesn't pan out."

Steve grimaced. "That too. It's also so I have someone who believes in what I'm doing - but is more objective than me - there to call me out if I'm about to cross that line."

Tony gave him a wryly amused smile. "Is this you offering to be that person for me? You offering to give Loki that chance?"

"I..." Steve gave a heavy sigh. "I suppose I am. Agreeing to draw a line under what's happened so far isn't the same as forgetting what's come before though."

"No, but it's a start."

'It is indeed,' Loki thought to himself as he faded from the window unnoticed.

~*~*~*~*~*~

No one saw Loki around the tower for weeks after their return to Earth, but there were signs he was still around. Like the glass and metal canister of tea in the kitchen that had appeared back during the planning stages and only Loki could open. The tea leaves had continued to fall even with his seeming absence.

"Loki's been visiting you."

'This is becoming a thing,' Tony thought to himself as he looked up from his latest project at Steve.

"You say that almost like an accusation."

"No one else has seen him."

"It's not exactly like they make him feel welcome, do they?"

"Thor tries."

"Thor's been in Boulder with Jane for two of the last three weeks, and there's a hell of a lot of water under that bridge for them to just pretend like they're friends, don't you think?"

"I suppose, but how are we supposed to see he's changed if he's not around?"

"He hasn't changed, he's still Loki. He's just seeing things without the cloud of grief and coercion these days."

Steve gave him an unimpressed look. "Isn't that essentially the same thing?"

"No. One implies a fundamental change in character - those rarely last without some sort of serious mental conditioning - the other is the same person, just with a change of perspective."

"Is that how you see yourself pre versus post Iron Man?"

"You've been spending too much time with Sam. And it's the truth, anyone who thinks otherwise is either naive or deluding themselves." Tony gave him a look that clearly challenged 'Which one are you?'

Steve wasn't taking that bait. "Still doesn't explain why he's been skulking about to see _you_."

"Must be the witty banter and reasonably non-judgemental company. We talk science and current events, sometimes he asks about my latest project, and he drinks an obscene amount of tea. All rather a lot like my friendship with Bruce." Except the banter wasn't punctuated with sex and blow jobs with Bruce, not that Steve needed to know about that.

Steve sighed heavily at Tony's stubbornness. He felt like there was something more to all this, but he couldn't find any proof of what it was. It was all just a gut feeling, and he still wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad one.

All of that was clear on his face for Tony to read. There had been a time when Tony was shit at reading people outside the boardroom or a contract negotiation. That time was long past now, because somewhere between Iron Man and Vanko he'd finally started paying attention.

"Well if he does want the others to start treating him more welcomingly, he should probably start by showing his face around the place when there isn't an emergency on," Steve said in exasperation. "Maybe when he's making that tea for a start."

"I'll make sure he knows your opinion," Tony assured his retreating back. As the door closed he felt something shift in the air.

"One of these days I'll figure out a way to know when you're eavesdropping, and then what will you do?"

"Find a new way?" Loki suggested.

"And that is why I just assume you're always watching me these days."

Loki filed that comment away for further thought. It had significant implications about some of Tony and the Captain's recent conversations.

"I have better things to do than stalk you, Stark."

Tony grinned unrepentantly. "Could have fooled me."

"Just because I always _could_ be watching does not mean I am."

"Touché."

Loki walked over to the table to examine what Tony was working on, casually leaning his hip against the edge in a way Tony knew by now was an invitation. Disappointing his libido, he chose not to take the bait just yet.

"He has a point, you know."

"About what?"

"You know what, you were listening to that whole damn conversation."

Loki gave a noncommittal hum, which just earned him a jab in the side with Tony's screwdriver - he really didn't seem to have any self-preservation instincts when it came to that kind of impulse control in the lab. Fortunately the worst he got for his daring was a scathing look, and the jab still did its job.

"What makes you think I care about whether or not your comrades welcome me?"

"Because if you didn't you wouldn't be hiding from them. You'd be rubbing it in their faces that you have permission to be here and there's little they can do about it since it's my tower and you're my guest."

"Perhaps I am simply being courteous enough not to invite trouble for you with your comrades."

"Funny, that didn't stop you when we were working on the generator."

"I rightly predicted 'Luke Williams' presence would be a more welcome invasion of their space than my own."

"Except Steve. He never stopped suspecting Luke's motives and now here we are, with him encouraging you to come make tea while people are about."

"That does not mean he suspects me any less."

"He's making an effort, that's more than he did with Luke."

Loki turned to face Tony fully and reached out for his shirt, pulling him up to stand chest to chest. "There are better things for you to be doing with that mouth of yours than talking."

"You're just trying to stop me from making you face the truth."

"I often prefer the non-verbal uses of your mouth."

Tony smirked at him. "You only say that when I'm saying truths you don't want to hear. The rest of the time it's about 50-50."

"At present the desire to hear you speak, except to plead my name, has fallen to zero," Loki said and pulled Tony the rest of the way in to catch his lips in a demanding kiss.

It was a distraction technique as much as anything else, and Tony knew it. But he'd said what he wanted to for now, so he was happy to go with it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Even Tony didn't see Loki for the next few days, and he was starting to wonder if the little chat with Steve had actually had a counterproductive effect. He found himself far from pleased at the idea of Loki ceasing his visits, and not just because he was a convenient lay.

He rationalised to himself that it didn't matter, he still had Bruce and Rhodey to enthuse with over his feats of engineering. Somehow it felt hollow though, and he really didn't want to stop to examine why.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"You finished with those carrots?"

"Just done," Bruce said as he brought them over to the pot Steve was making stew in.

"Him you give the variety of vegetables, and I get stuck on mashed potato duty. I _am_ actually capable of chopping things competently." Tony gave Steve an accusing look.

"Didn't look that way to me last time."

"You make a hash of things _once_ due to sleep deprivation fuelled lack of effort and you're branded incompetent for life!" Tony complained to the universe at large, because he knew he wasn't going to get sympathy within the room.

Bruce gave him an unimpressed look. "If you were sleep deprived, that's all the more reason to keep you away from knives. You shouldn't chop while impaired. Besides, I've seen the travesties you call an omelette."

Tony pulled a face at him. "Eggs defy me, so sue me. I don't know what it is about them, but other than scrambled in the microwave they never do what I intend."

"And you wonder why we don't let you be in charge of dinner unless we're ordering in," Steve said dryly.

Tony never got a chance to reply, as they were interrupted by a voice behind them.

"You should make them stir fry, it was quite good last week and would scale up nicely. It also has the benefit of showing off a great deal of your chopping skills."

They all turned around to find Loki sitting at the kitchen table, casually sipping tea.

"I'm going to put a bell on you one of these days, like a cat."

Loki gave Tony a toothy grin. "I'd like to see you try."

"You made him stir fry?"

"Stop with the judgey eyes, Steve. It was a midnight snack during a break from the lab." Though it hadn't been science that had given them an appetite.

"As amusing as this all is, it actually isn't why I chose to subject myself to your _delightful_ company."

Tony crossed his arms and quirked a brow at him. "Oh? And what is?"

"This." Loki pulled a flash drive from his pocket and set it on the table. "I obtained it from... well we'll just call them a competitor. I believe it'll be of a great deal more use to you, Captain, than it'll be to me."

Loki stood up and headed for the door. "I will be in the lab, Stark, but I believe you should remain for the moment. The good Captain will likely wish assistance with this matter and I would not recommend waiting. Those I obtained this from will not."

Loki left then and there was silence in his wake.

"Well that was cryptic."

Steve and Tony both gave Bruce _looks_ for that.

"What? It was."

Steve turned his gaze back to the drive, looking at it like it was going to bite him.

"There's only one way to find out what's on it," Tony said.

"You two go on, I can manage dinner from here."

"You sure, Bruce?" Steve looked torn, like part of him wanted the excuse not to see whatever Loki had brought him. However it didn't seem Bruce was going to oblige.

"Yeah, go on."

Tony grabbed the drive and headed for the nearest port in the sitting room. He already had it in and was looking at the file list when Steve finally walked over.

"Looks like they're all video files. I'll just queue them up chronologically." At Steve's nod Tony started up the first one.

It was security camera footage, and it took them a moment to place it. One of the soldiers turned and they realised they were looking at a corridor in a Hydra base. A base that was on red alert, and it didn't take long to see why.

The soldiers were soon shooting at something, but they didn't last long and in a moment the Winter Soldier walked into view. He paused to check for signs of life, looked right at the camera, then was on his way again. The time stamp on the video was six months ago, right around the time SHIELD started finding a number of Hydra bases around North America left empty and scrubbed of anything useful for seemingly no reason. It certainly hadn't been SHIELD's own work that was driving them out, since they were only finding these particular bases because of the activity around abandoning them.

It looked like they might finally have found the cause.

Tony glanced over at Steve, but he was staring resolutely at the screen as the next video started.

It was more of the same. Video after video of the Winter Soldier storming Hydra bases, sometimes clearly multiple videos from the same base, and the time stamps gradually got more and more recent. The pattern didn't change until after an assault only a couple of weeks ago.

It was still surveillance footage, but this time from someone in a car rather than a security video. As he watched people go by in what looked like a busy shopping district, Tony wasn't sure what was behind the change until he heard Steve's quiet gasp.

Tony studied the screen for what had caught his attention... There, a man had just left a consignment shop specialising in online auctions. He was unusually covered-up compared to the other people in the footage, and he had shoulder length brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Tony had only seen archive photos of Bucky Barnes without his Winter Soldier gear, but the man seemed like a good match.

He glanced at the time stamp as the car started moving to follow. Two days ago, Steve hadn't had a confirmed lead that hot ever.

It wasn't just footage in the shopping district though, the driver managed to remain discrete enough to follow Barnes all the way home to a brownstone that it looked like had been split into upper and lower units.

"Wait a minute, I know that area..."

"It's Brooklyn." Steve's eyes were riveted to the screen as the footage finished playing, and it wasn't hard to imagine why. He'd been chasing ghosts all over the country, and now here was proof that at least when he wasn't out storming Hydra bases, Bucky had been less than 5 miles away, maybe even all this time.

"Jarvis, can you get a more exact location?"

"From the landmarks visible in the footage, it appears to be Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, in the 630 to 650 range of the street."

That seemed to be all Steve was waiting for, as he turned and headed for the door.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Steve didn't even pause, forcing Tony to chase after him toward the elevator.

"To find him. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Loki's right, it can't wait. Hydra, or someone with access to their systems, compiled that footage and now that they have Buck's home address they won't wait any longer than they have to, to go after him."

"You're not going alone."

"I'm not waiting for Sam to get back from California to go."

"No, of course not, but I'm going with you."

That gave Steve a moment of pause. "No offence, Tony, but you're not much in a fight without your tech. If Hydra shows up because I've made a move, or Buck's still not thinking straight... I can't have you as a liability."

"Give me five minutes to grab the repulsor cuffs and a jacket, and we can head down to the garage together. You need to grab a jacket yourself, and in New York traffic if five minutes is going to make a difference we're already screwed."

Steve smiled faintly. "You're determined."

"Without Sam here you need someone to keep you grounded."

"If you're supposed to be a grounding influence, we're more doomed than the traffic."

Tony grinned, because he knew that for the 'yes' it was.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The car was parked across the street from what they were pretty certain was Bucky's brownstone, and it had been for fifteen minutes. Tony had let Steve sit there, staring out the window in silence, but the wait was starting to make _him_ jittery now.

"What happened to the rush to get up there?"

Steve startled at the sudden break in the silence. "What if we've got this wrong, or if he noticed he was being followed and moved on? Another dead lead."

"Even if he's left, this lead would be cool instead of cold, that footage was only two days ago, Steve," Tony reminded him. "If he's gone we'll search the place until we find something useful. But," a light turned off in one of the brownstone windows, "I don't think the place is vacant."

"Yeah... Yeah, you're right."

Steve took a steadying breath and they both got out of the car. At a gesture, Tony fell into step behind him, accepting Steve's need to take the lead on this. He rang the door buzzer and someone pressed to unlock without even asking who was there. Steve looked at Tony, but he didn't know any better either and gave a shrug.

"Maybe he's expecting pizza?"

Steve rolled his eyes and led the way in, headed for the stairs up to the second unit where they thought Bucky would be. His flippant response didn't stop Tony from getting the cuffs ready on the walk up, just in case.

Before Steve's knuckles could connect with the door, it opened part way and a gun was aimed at Steve's face.

"I ain't going back, so unless you want to end up like your pals at the base, you'll turn around and head right back out."

That voice, there was a very slight Russian lilt to it, but there was no mistaking who's it was.

"'Fraid I can't do that, Buck. I've been trying to find you before they do."

There was a pause and then the gun disappeared and the door opened, and Bucky Barnes looked like he'd seen a ghost rather than been one.

"Steve..." His voice was rough with disbelief.

Steve smiled a touch wryly at him. "Hey Buck."

"I... You, why are you here? The last time I saw you I tried to kill you."

"The last time we saw each other you pulled me from a river so I wouldn't drown."

"After trying to kill you."

"I'd rather focus on the part that was more you and less what they did to you."

"Sorry to interrupt this heartfelt reunion," Tony cut in, "but could we get out of the hall? We know there's surveillance going on and standing out here doesn't seem the best choice."

Bucky gave a little start, just remembering Tony was standing there as well. "Right, get in here. I was just packing up to leave." He backed up, motioning Steve and Tony in before doing a quick check of the hall and closing the door behind them.

Tony looked around as they walked in. There was a backpack and a large duffel sitting on the couch, mostly packed. There were clothes, weapons and a few other trinkets waiting to go in the bags.

"You caught the tail on you then?" Tony looked over at Bucky, where he and Steve were just staring at each other like they didn't know what to say.

"Oh, uh yeah. Caught someone following me this morning, figured it was time to move on. Shame, just got this place the way I wanted."

"Not bad digs for an unemployed former hit-man."

Bucky smiled wryly at that. "World War II memorabilia fetches a good price on this auction website called eBay, and those Hydra base commanders seem to be pretty damn nostalgic given the contents of their offices."

"Nothing of scientific interest I hope."

"No, I made sure that sort of thing was locked down before triggering alerts for what's left of SHEILD. Seems like they've been doing a pretty good job rebuilding lately."

Tony smirked at that. "They've had a bit of help. Both from my personal bankroll and the Avengers in general. We're in the helping game after all."

"Speaking of which," Steve said, "Buck, why didn't you come to us, to me, for help?"

"Given I nearly killed three of you, I didn't think I'd be welcome."

"We've already been-"

"Yeah, but how was I supposed to know that at the time? And... I was in a bad place for a while, Steve. It's been a year and I still... I'm not... I don't think I'll ever be the Bucky Barnes you knew again. Things from before, they've been coming back in bits and pieces, but so have the things I did for them. I don't... I didn't want to disappoint you by just being a shadow of the friend you had."

"Buck... We've both seen a lot without each other, but the only thing that could disappoint me would be knowing you're out there and we never tried." Steve gave him a wry smile. "Who else could I ever possibly talk about the early days and how different it is now and have them actually _understand_?"

That got him a faint smile in return. "That's true."

"Loathe as I am to interrupt this sickeningly sweet reunion, there are more urgent matters to attend to."

Their attention all snapped to the new voice by the windows, Bucky with his gun raised, once more the mercenary facing a home intruder.

"You're the alien that led the invasion two years ago."

"Cat bells."

"Not now Stark, I believe the men amassing to the front and rear of this building are a more urgent issue."

Tony pulled out his phone, checking the security video from his car. "Shit, there's gotta be a dozen of them."

"More in the back."

"Steve, why is he trusting the alien megalomaniac?"

"Loki's... on probation; he's been trustworthy lately."

"And if you wish to avoid a firefight in a residential area you will need to trust me now. I came to take you all back to the tower. Grab your luggage, James, or it will be left behind."

Bucky still hadn't lowered his gun, but his eyes flicked to where Tony was shoving his stuff from the couch into his bags quickly.

"Buck, you don't want to face these guys surrounded by civilians, do you?"

"I wouldn't have cared six months ago."

"And now?"

"...And now you're right." Bucky slowly lowered the gun.

"Did you want anything that wasn't on the couch?" Tony asked as he shoved the last of Bucky's stuff in the bags.

"No, that was it."

"Then I suggest you all gather close."

They heard the sound of a pair of small explosions going off, probably the front and back doors. Steve and Bucky each grabbed a bag, and while Bucky still didn't look comfortable about it, they gathered close with Tony and Loki.

It was like a shower of thousands of golden sparks surrounded them as they heard the pounding of booted feet up the stairs. As the sparks got thicker and the room obscured, the sounds faded away, and in a moment the golden glow was dissipating to reveal the living room of the tower around them.

The moment he could, Bucky put some space between himself and Loki. That wasn't enough for him to relax though, instead his eyes were scanning the room, cataloguing exits and who knew what else.

Tony couldn't help thinking that it was a clear sign that Bucky hadn't been exaggerating when he said his recovery was far from done. He made a mental note to send Sam a message to come back home as soon as he could. He had no doubt that Sam's experience was going to be vital in helping the newest addition to their ragtag group to feel comfortable enough to stay, and after all the time he'd spent looking there was no way Steve was going to want to let him leave any time soon.

"Sir, I've taken the liberty of notifying SHIELD about Hydra's incursion into Brooklyn, and am relaying footage from the car to them. They have a team on their way, but it seems likely with their target gone the forces will clear out before SHIELD's team arrives."

Bucky had startled at the first word, dropping the bag he'd held to look around for the source of the voice, his gun slightly raised.

"Thanks J. Just keep an eye on the situation and we'll leave SHIELD to handle the clean-up on this one." Tony gave Bucky a reassuring smile. "James Barnes, I'd like to introduce Jarvis. He looks after the tower and us when we need it."

"Some more than others," Jarvis said dryly. "It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Barnes, I know your presence in the tower has been desired for quite some time."

Bucky's gun had only lowered part way as the introduction began, but high alert seemed to be being replaced by curiosity, so Tony counted that as progress.

"Why are you still hiding if we're doing introductions?" Bucky's voice wasn't hostile, just curious, which was good.

"I am not. I am a highly complex computer program, and I reside within the systems of this tower and a great many of Mr. Stark's personal belongings that have been modified to accommodate my presence."

"Like the car."

"And his phone, and his Iron Man suits, yes."

Bucky finally lowered the gun the rest of the way.

"Do you keep an eye on this asshole?" Bucky asked with a glance toward Loki.

"I monitor the presence of all visitors to the tower's private floors."

"So you don't live here then."

"No, I have my own accommodation elsewhere that is much less cluttered with egos than this abode." Loki seemed to find Bucky amusing rather than insulting, which Tony was grateful for.

"I suppose this isn't such a bad place to stay then, for now anyway."

Now Steve was the one looking relieved. "You can stay in my suite while we figure things out."

"I don't want to impose..."

"It's not, the thing is way bigger than I need, but that's Tony."

And in that moment it was like the two of them had completely forgotten Tony and Loki were even in the room as they collected the bags and started toward the elevator, chatting about the suite as though they'd only been parted a few days instead of decades. It wouldn't always be this easy, but right now no-one was going to spoil the illusion.

"Don't think I didn't see what you're doing here," Tony said quietly with fond amusement as they left.

"You claim to see a great many things, how many are real remains to be seen."

"This was a peace offering to Steve. You know if he accepts your presence, the others will eventually fall in line. And that means you're planning to stick around, in a capacity besides adversarial." Tony had given up on pretending that wasn't something he wanted to see happen, and he looked at Loki with a grin. "Admit it."

Loki sniffed haughtily and didn't take his gaze away from the others as they waited for the elevator. "I'm keeping my options open. Bridges have been built, it would be premature to burn them already."

"No, so you've started reinforcing them instead."

There was silence a few moments before Loki finally conceded. "Perhaps I have. I'm not in a hurry to leave Midgard; it has more of worth about it than I imagined when I first returned here. And your band of merry Avengers showing me benevolent disregard at the least would go a long ways towards making it a more comfortable stay."

"Especially if you have to deal with them regularly."

"Just so."

Tony leaned in just a bit so his shoulder was pressed against Loki's, and he didn't even try to pretend to himself about how happy it made him when Loki didn't move away.

~*~ Fin ~*~


End file.
